Reel Life – restored

This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be missing content or contain faulty links. Contact zsrweb@wfu.edu to report an issue.

A few weeks back, I was happy to begin some work on Special Collections materials in Preservation. I grabbed a few likely suspects off the shelf and opened one: this was a thick volume of bound magazines entitled Reel Life: A Weekly Magazine of Kinetic Drama and Literature. This project by Mr. Clarence Herbert New was like many of his projects- it seemed like the most important thing in the world to him and must be thoroughly documented. For some perspective, it would be a little like this: pretend that one day I was walking across the magnolia quad and had a great idea. I then wrote that idea on a magnolia leaf, because there just isn’t a stack of paper available on the mag quad, right? I would then proclaim to the world that I had this great idea and wrote it on a magnolia leaf! You get the picture. Mr. New has documented his idea for the masthead of “Reel Life” by drawing a draft of the first page. On this draft page, Mr. New wrote that this idea came to him and he wrote it on a piece of driftwood at Rockaway Point,NY in a tent on August 11,1913. (we must know the exact day and time!)Here is a draft of the masthead for Reel Life:

The magazine documented the newly developing moving picture business. It is filled with ads for for the 1913 Edison Kinetoscope, coming attractions at theaters, scenes and reviews of current films and all sorts of film related products. Mr. New must have been quite a fellow!

In terms of preservation, I stabilized the text block, re-attached any loose pages and then re-attached the loose text block to the covers so this piece of history can be used by researchers. This is the catalog record in ZSR.

3 Comments on ’Reel Life – restored‘

Rebecca

He is an interesting man! Great job, Craig.

10:52AM, 11/30/2011

Ellen

This information certainly personalizes the magazine. Thanks for this story.

2:01PM, 11/30/2011

Audra

I am excited to read more about the Reel Life discovery. Clarence Herbert New had many lives…it’s amazing to see more wonderful work from his papers! Thanks for sharing it!